Heavy betting: Predicting sports gambling’s major match-ups

Heavy betting: Sports gambling's major match-ups

If sports industry insiders know anything, they know the fans. Sure, they can cite chapter and verse when it comes to statistics and trivia, but they also have an unobstructed view of how fans think. This gives them a distinct edge when it comes to predicting which sporting events may attract a lot of betting, legal or otherwise.

Chris Matcovich is one such insider. He's the senior director of data and communications for TiqIQ, a ticket price aggregator which draws data from such sellers as StubHub, Ticket Network, and eBay. He observes the trends firsthand, and believes they can provide clues to which games will inspire the most gambling.

"Ticket prices fluctuate based on demand and sentiment from the fans," he said in an interview. "When prices go up, that also translates to the betting market. If you have a grudge against a certain team, you take your passion for the sport a little further, and with that contentiousness, I think it leads to greater betting. People tend to want to put some action on those games."

Matcovich has opinions about which upcoming events may inspire significant betting. These opinions are based on the jump in price of an event ticket's face value to its secondary-market asking price. His opinions are also based on team and league history, and on his intimate knowledge of the issues that cause the most furious debate among the fans.

CNBC.com presents TiqIQ's list of upcoming sporting events that could inspire heavy betting among fans. All ticket prices are current as of Sept. 6, 2013, and are expected to fluctuate up until the day of the event.

—"Money Talks" takes viewers inside the world of Steve Stevens, a sports handicapper who runs VIP Sports out of Las Vegas.